FLUTTER FLUTTER

These might look like nameless children to you, but that's because it's not very clear.

Actually it's Cousin M., Cousin R., The Pixie, Friend B., and The Princess.

A butterfly somewhere fluttered its wings and made it so that one of my best friends from Pennsylvania moved into the church ward of one of my other best friends in Utah.

At first I was screaming mad at the irony. Yup - you can ask Mr. Right, I was screamin'.

Screamin' stuff to the heavens like, "Are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING me? They get to be in the same ward?" That and other really wise comments.

But then I went to bed and when I woke up I was chagrined to realize that now I get to visit them both during the same vacation. One butterfly. Two birds. It could be spring.

However its December and this night we went to my good friends ward's Christmas party.

Oh yeah.

A Utah ward Christmas party.

I've never been to one before and truthfully I was thrilled to see with my own eyes 14 different kinds of cottage cheese-Cool whip salads. I was hoping it would be something like that. In fact the whole (2 minute) drive to the church I was giggling so loudly with anticipation that the little bugs couldn't hear Nat King Cole sing Mrs. Claus...which by the way is a classic.

When I arrived and weaved my way amongst all the strange faces (because they're strangers to me) there they were. 14 pastel colored creamy lumpy salads in 14 pretty bowls. I put some of each on three different plates. One of the perks of having little bugs is you can be a pig and not look like one.

I also discovered that people in Utah wards have way more energy to invest in their parties than those of us further north. Maybe it's all the sun...

The after dinner activities were geared toward the families. At least I assume they were because in my mind listening to a recorded version of Polar Express and watching an Elf turn the pages; or coloring a picture of Santa aren't what I would expect to see at a single adult party. Then there were the cookies to frost, the cocoa to drink, the bubble-gum advent strings to wrap in plastic wrap and all those salads to eat.

I was very happy. I love my friends.

Thank you butterfly.

Here is The Princess with her PA friend.

This is The Princess, her PA friend and The Pixie. A little boy was sitting next to The Pixie. I had to lean the camera against his head to get The Pixie's face in the picture. He though this was weird of me.

This is the picture I tried to get of The Princess and her PA friend but instead a little boy got in the way to show me his picture.

Here is that same little boy getting me to open his candy cane.

Here is The Princess telling the little boy to not get so distracted because his candy cane is now open.

Here is The Pixie after she went on her own, unknown to the rest of us, and sat on Santa's lap.

Here is The Pirate avoiding Mrs. Claus - despite his love of the song.

Here is The Pirate with Mrs. Claus after she showed him the candy cane.